Fabrication of micro-cantilever and its theoretical validation for energy harvesting applications

An effort has been made to develop a micro-cantilever using MEMS technology for the realization of piezoelectric energy harvester. For the fabrication of micro-cantilever, a membrane of SiO2 of thickness 1.8 μm has been integrated with piezoelectric PZT thin film and gold inter digital transducers (IDTs). MEMS based micro-cantilever with three different dimensions having cantilever lengths of 200 μm, 300 μm and 400 μm have been designed and fabricated for the realization of energy harvesters. The actuating frequency has been found to be varying with length of cantilever. The experimentally observed resonating frequencies of all prepared piezoelectric cantilevers have been validated with the theoretical simulations carried out using COMSOL multiphysics software.